Improvement in oscillating steam-engines



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DAVID 'EL NATION AND THOS. B. HALL, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

IMPROVEMENT IN OSCILLAITING STEAM-ENGINES.

Specification forming Apart of Letters Patent No.A 49,293, dated August8, 1865.

To all whom it `may concern: p

Be it known that we, DAVID H. NATION and THOMAS B. HALL, of the city andcounty ot' St. Louis, and State of Missouri, have inventd a new andImproved Oscillating-Piston Engine; and we do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which willenable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecication, in which- Figure 1 represents a sectional side elevation ofthis invention, one of the cylinder-heads being removed to exposev thepiston. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same, showing the opposite sidefrom Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan or top view of the same. Figs. 4 and 5 aredetached sectional views of the valve-seat, with its ports, and of thevalve.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

This invention relates to certain improvements in that class of en ginesknown as oscillating-piston engines.7 The cylinder is composed of twosegmental boxes, which are bolted together by means of flanges, and theinner spaces of which are separated one from the other by a centralboss, which is firmly keyed to the oscillating pistou-rod, and fromwhich extend the pistons in combination with suitable steamsupply andexhaust ports in such a manner that by the action of the steam on saidpistons an oscillating motion is imparted to the shaft, which, bysuitable connections, is converted into a continuous rotary motion ofthe fly-wheel shaft. Each section of the cylinder is provided with aseparate valve, and both valves are operated by a common pitmanconnected to an eccentric wrist-pin, which is inserted in the innersurface of a disk or arm mounted on the oscillatingpiston-rod, and theyare so adjusted that steam is admitted to each cylinder and exhaustedtherefrom at the proper intervals.

A represents the cylinder of our engine, which consists of twosegments,B C,connected to each other by flanges a, as clearly shown inFig. 1. The inner spaces of the two segments are separated one from theother by a boss, D, which is tted stea1n tight in its seat, and fromwhich radiate the two pistons E F. The boss D is iirmly.keyed to thepiston-rod G, which extends through suitable stuffing-boxes in the sidesot the cylinder, and the pistons fit steamtightin the interior of thesegments B C.

Each segment is provided with two ports, b b c c', which alternatelyform the steam and `exhaust ports, and these ports communicate withsteam-chests d d in such a manner that if the segment B takes steamthrough the port b and exhausts through the port b', the segment O takessteam through the port c and exhausts through the port c', and viceversa; and if steam is admitted through the ports b c, the pistons turnin the direction of the arrow marked thereon in Fig. 1, and vice versa.By these means an oscillating motion is imparted to the piston-rod Gr,and an eccentric wrist-pin, e, secured in the face of a disk, H, whichiskeyed to the end of the piston-rod, serves to transmit the oscillatingmotion of the same to the fly-wheel shaft I. Said wrist-pin connects bya pitmnn, J, with the crank K, which is mounted on the end of theiiy-wheel shaft, and the length ot' the crank K is so proportioned inrelation to the distance of the wrist-pin c from the center of itsrotation and to the length of the oscillations ofthe pistonrod that theiiywheel shaft is compelled to rotate continually by the oscillations ofthe piston-rod. y

The steam-chests d d are-connected or cast solid with one of thecylinder-heads, and their bottoms form the seats for the valves e', adetached face view of one of which is shown in Fig. 5. Each of thesteam-chests is provided with four ports, f f' g g', two of which formthe steam and two the exhaust ports, and steam is admitted to the cheststhrough holes h in their covers. The ports ff communicate by means ofchannels i with the ports b b c c in the cylinder, and the exhaust-portsg g communicate by suitable channels with holes in the sides of thesteam-chests which lead to theopen atmosphere. The ports fg and f g areclose together, as shown in Fig. 4:, and the valves are Iitted withcavities in their faces, and they are so shaped that either pair ofports f g orf' g' can be covered by one ofthe win gs of the valves; butif the ports j' g are so covered,the port j" is open to take steam, andifthe ports f' g are covered by the valve, the portf is open to takesteam. Those ports which are covered by one ot' the Wings ofl the valvecommunicate with eachother through the cavity in the face of said Wing,and the steam from that side of the cylinder is free to exhaust, Whileat the vsame time the other side takes steam.

The stems Z of the valves extend through stuffing-boxes in the coversofthe steam-chests, and cranks m, mounted on their outer ends andpointing in opposite directions, are connected to each other by a.pitnian, n. This pitman is attached to an eccentric Wrist-pin, o,projecting from the inner or rear surface of the disk H, which ismounted on the piston-rod. By these' means both the valves are movedsimultaneously in opposite directions, and steam is admitted to andexhausted from both sections of the cylinder at nthe proper intervals.

segmental boxes B C, oscillating pistons E F D, piston-rod G,steam-chestsd d', valves e', pitman n, and eccentric wrist-pins e o, asand for the purposes herein specified.

DAVID H. NATION. THOMAS B. HALL.

Vitnesses JOHN BETZ, CHARLES ORsCH.

